ANDY MURRAY insists he can bow out for the season with his head held high despite being sent crashing out of the ATP Tour Finals in Greenwich by Roger Federer.

The Swiss master turned the clock back with a vintage display and ended the best campaign of the Scot’s career with an imperious 7-6 6-2 victory on the banks of the Thames.

Murray has enjoyed a dream year, winning gold for Team GB against Federer in July and being crowned US Open champion at Flushing Meadows in September.

But Federer overcame a troubled start and gained revenge for his Olympic defeat to reach the final of this lucrative event for the eighth time in 11 years.

The 31-year-old triumph set up a mouth-watering clash with Novak Djokovic, who beat Juan Martin del Potro in the other semi-final.

Murray said: “Once he gets ahead, he’s incredibly hard to stop. He tends to play better and better when he gets up and I feel like I gave him that advantage at the beginning of the second set.

“I’d loved to have finished on a high and with a win but it’s still an incredibly positive year.

“It has been the best year of my career by a mile so it would be silly to look back on the defeat negatively. If you had told me last year I’d be sitting here in this position with the results I had then I would have signed up straightaway.

“I’m happy with the year and I’ll work really hard in December to get even better next year.

“The thing I have been most pleased with is that I have been trying to go out there and win matches rather than waiting for my opponent to lose them.”

There was a feeling of deja vu when Murray and Federer walked on to court to an incredible ovation from the capacity 17,800 crowd who had paid upwards of £100 a ticket for the privilege of watching them go head-to-head in the capital for the third time this season.

Federer won the first instalment of the trilogy at the start of the summer, edging a thrilling Wimbledon final before the Scot exacted revenge three weeks later when sweeping the Swiss aside to claim Olympic gold.

But, while the 25-year-old Scot also won their most recent meeting in Shanghai, the veteran Swiss star started as slight favourite given his imperious record indoors and at this event.

Federer has lost just twice in the last two years inside – both to del Potro – and has won this tournament a record six times.

Murray was still searching for his first tour end championship and will now have to wait a little longer to be crowned champion in his home city despite getting off to the ideal start in Greenwich.

The US Open winner started aggressively and broke Federer in the opening game of the contest to gain the upper hand. There were pre-match rumours that Federer was struggling with the back problem which has plagued him this season.

And he was certainly made to look sluggish in his movement during the opening exchanges which were dominated by the British No.1.

Controlling affairs on the back of some huge first serves Murray appeared to have things under control only for the Fed Express to come charging back.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion broke back in the eighth game to make it 4-4 and after 52 minutes of high quality tennis we headed for a tie break.

The pair exchanged mini-breaks at the start of the shoot-out before the Swiss, now moving freely and finding the lines with regularity, started to turn the screw.

Federer fashioned two set points and while the Scot, in between smashing his racquet, managed to save the first of them there was little he could do about the second as his opponent wrapped up the opener in 61 minutes.

From looking totally in control suddenly the omens were against Murray who, since Doha in 2009, had never recovered from losing the first set in 11 subsequent meetings with the world No.2.

It all really started to unravel for the home favourite in the third game of the second set when he played a dreadful drop shot at 30-0 up and never recovered.

Federer secured the crucial break and proceeded to motor through the rest of the match with a display of imperious tennis.

Even the huge Murray support, who made up the vast majority of the crowd, were on their feet at the end to applaud one of the true sporting greats.

It took the defending champion just 32 majestic minutes to win the second set and secure his place in the ATP Tour Final for the third year in a row.

Earlier in the afternoon Djokovic had to come back from the brink against del Potro to book his spot in the final for the first time at the O2 Arena.

The world No.1 displayed extraordinary resilience against the Argentine and proved exactly why he remains the premier force in the men’s game.

For a set and a half del Potro produced easily the best tennis of the tournament and Djokovic simply had no answer as he lost the opener 6-4 and then fell a break behind in the second.

Del Potro was dominating the baseline exchanges and his booming serve was proving almost unreturnable for the best retriever in the business.

But with end of season fatigue kicking in the injury prone del Potro appeared to run out of steam during the second half of a roller-coaster encounter.

The Serbian, who genuinely seems to relish adversity, broke back to make it 2-2 and from that moment the complexion of the contest completely changed.

Djokovic won 11 of the next 14 games to prevail 4-6 6-3 6-2 and set up another mouth-watering clash with Murray/Federer.

He said: “I’m pleased to reach my first final in London. Knowing it is my last match of the season I’m going to give it everything.”